The High Ropes Course!
July 1, 2010 by Don Gentle
Pictures from July 1, 2010 (password required)
Each cabin gets one opportunity during the busy session to spend half the day on the high ropes course. What a way to bring the cabin together and have some fun! The boys learn the basics in the “ground school” training before ever going up to the course. During this training they also learn to count on one another to be sure each person is making the right moves. They even have to ask their partner permission to make movement through the course. Our high ropes course has 16 different elements at levels of 25 and 45 feet in the air! The half-day event ends with an exciting time down the zip line!
The last of the cabin overnights headed out tonight with the exception of our oldest boys in Holiday I. We have a special mission for them that will happen Saturday night. We’ll keep you posted. SSSHHHH!
The climbers were also out today as well as our first group heading to Worley’s Cave for at day of what I call “indoor hiking.” There is nothing like crawling around all day in the mud and not knowing whether it is rainy or sunny outside. What a blast!
The legendary “Camper-Counselor Tennis Tournament” started today. Each year the boys ask a counselor (or nearly any staff member for that matter) to be their partner in the tournament. Camper players with more skill are asked to pursue staff with less skill and so on. The guys over at tennis have a great time matching the pairs to create a fun tournament. The event will take the entire session to finish… Along with trips, staff days off, and just a plain busy schedule, we have had some final games in years past played on parent’s day. It should be a lot of fun; we will keep you posted on the details.
Our second group of paddlers headed out for some review and hard work on the Green River. The boys spent the day not just heading downstream, but also stopping at many rapids and working on skills that will help them on future river trips. Many times the boys even have to change positions in the canoe and re-run the rapid in their new setup, allowing the boys to become fully capable of working the canoe from the bow or stern. You will hear about these guys on more rivers in the future. The river trip pictures came in late, so check out tomorrow’s blog for some great canoeing shots from this group.
We often get asked why the boys have to spend time in a canoe first before moving on to a solo boat. One of the best reasons is that the boys spend a little more time in a larger craft understanding how the river works and what it does to your boat. The canoe offers an amazing vantage point to see all the river features downstream. It also give the boys an opportunity to work as a team and communicate with each other as they challenge themselves. We want the boys to experience the river in what some might call a more noble craft. Most all of the skills learned in a canoe are immediately transferable to a kayak. Personally, I always felt that learning to paddle a canoe was like learning to drive a manual transmission (stick). If you can drive “with a stick” you can drive any car my parents would say. If the boys learn to paddle a canoe, they can paddle anything! The canoeing base to our paddling program is probably one of the longest traditions we have here at High Rocks. It was actually brought over from Camp Mondamin when Townsend’s parent’s first started High Rocks. The tradition continues to this day.
Have a great night and enjoy the pictures!
Don